Anton Bruckner had his 200th birthday on September 4. Though Bruckner wrote fanfares, his birthday came and went without one. Bruckner doesn’t get the love he deserves except from people such as me. I take …
September 13, 2024
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Stories by Garrett Harris
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If you want to start listening to Bruckner, start with his Symphony No. 6
Get ready for the San Diego Symphony's Mahler by listening to it a few times
We live in an age where entertainment is fading. I’m not talking about the performing arts, I’m talking about Marvel, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Superman. These enterprises are losing money faster than a crypto-bro …
September 9, 2024
The Jacobs Music Center: Expansive and Eternal
On Tuesday, August 27, I other several other members of the local media gathered at The Jacobs Music Center for a tour of the refurbished house. Many burning questions were answered. I wanted to know …
August 30, 2024
San Diego Symphony celebrates grand re-opening with free event
On September 29, the San Diego Symphony will celebrate the grand reopening of the Jacobs Music Center with a singular event titled, A Day of Music. The event, scheduled to start at 11:00 a.m., will …
August 23, 2024
Delius, Bridge, Debussy, and Kodaly help us beat the heat
In the past, the only way I have been able to deal with this time of year is to resign myself to the fact that the weather will be gross until about Halloween. This year …
August 16, 2024
Classical Music Meets the Olympic Standard
As The Olympics continue with a heavy dose of track, let’s look at distance-specific pieces of classical music. We will look at sprints, middle distance, and, of course, the marathon.Almost every tenor knows the aria …
August 9, 2024
Comic-Con-ish greatness
With Comic-Con devouring downtown San Diego, let’s take a look at four underappreciated or forgotten motion picture orchestral soundtracks. The requirements are that the movie be Comic-Con-ish in nature.Star Trek: The Motion Picture starts our list. …
July 26, 2024
German Cultural Minister tried to cancel Wagner
German Cultural Minister Claudia Roth has kicked a hornet’s nest by suggesting that The Bayreuth Festival, “should become more diverse, more colorful, and more youthful overall.” She suggested that other composers besides Richard Wagner should …
July 19, 2024
La Jolla's SummerFest 2024 starts July 26
With Mainly Mozart in the rearview mirror, all serious lovers of classical music now turn their eyes to The La Jolla Music Society and their SummerFest 2024. The LJMS presents concerts throughout the year but …
July 12, 2024
Mainly Mozart closes with "the modern Mozart"
The wildly entertaining final concert of The 2024 Mainly Mozart Festival, held on Thursday, June 27, sealed the deal for this being a festival to remember. During the performance of Mozart’s Prague Symphony, Marine Corps F35s …
July 5, 2024
Reveling in the Inevitability of Mainly Mozart
The Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra is mowing down masterpieces left and right as the festival tumbles toward its conclusion on Saturday, June 29. Mozart, Beethoven, Maurice Faure, Camille Saint Saens, Richard Strauss, Benjamin Britten, and Pytor …
June 28, 2024
Mainly Mozart unleashes a storm of liquid Mercury
Thursday, June 20, saw the awakening of happy feelings upon arriving at The San Diego Mainly Mozart Festival. The concert was held at The Epstein Family Amphitheatre on the campus of UC San Diego. The …
June 21, 2024
Robert Shaw is the choral GOAT
I’ve spent the better part of a week listening to recordings with Robert Shaw conducting choral masterpieces. While Shaw has not retained his classical music household name, his recordings are definitely definitive when it comes …
June 14, 2024
Looking to the bright lights of Mainly Mozart
With 2024 reaching the gloomy month of June although June gloom started in March this year, there is one blinding ray of sunshine on the grey horizon. The brilliance of the august San Diego Mainly …
June 7, 2024
Bidding farewell to The Shell
I was unable to attend the final concert in the 2023-2024 Jacobs Masterworks Series on Saturday, May 25. I have obligations on Saturdays until 6:00 pm and the concert started at 6:30 pm. The Padres …
May 31, 2024
Buzzing after Wagner's Walküre in San Diego
Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto was an instant classic from the moment that lyrical first phrase was first intoned on March 13, 1845, by Ferdinand David. On Saturday, May 18, 23-year-old violinist Daniel Lozakovich performed the Mendelssohn with …
May 24, 2024
San Diego Symphony report
The San Diego Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2024-2025 season to be held at the newly renovated and renamed Jacobs Music Center. The space was formerly known as Copley Symphony Hall. Dean P. Dwyer, President and …
May 17, 2024
Impossible to overstate Yo-Yo Ma at the San Diego Symphony
Legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma performed with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra on Tuesday, May 7, at 8:00 pm, at The Civic Theatre. San Diego Symphony Music Director Rafael Payare conducted.Before the concert, San Diego Symphony …
May 10, 2024
Beautiful Butterfly at San Diego Opera
I saw Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly on Sunday, April 28, at the Civic Theatre. It was the fifth production of Butterfly that I have seen at San Diego Opera. My first experience came in 1993. …
May 3, 2024
Easy to eat opera overtures
While opera remains the most acquired of the classical music tastes, opera overtures are pretty easy to digest. Some opera overtures are known to many who don’t consider themselves to be classical music fans at …
April 26, 2024
San Diegans packed the Shell for Lang Lang
The San Diego Symphony Orchestra concert on Friday, April 7, at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park was fantastic. The program was conducted by Otto Tausk who is the music director of the Vancouver Symphony …
April 19, 2024
Tár is a waste of time
A long time ago, I tried to watch the 2022 movie Tár starring Cate Blanchett. The digital copy that the theater had wasn’t working and so I didn’t see it. I meant to see it …
April 12, 2024
The journey back to Bach
I have often considered myself to be a most awful philistine when it comes to musical taste. That is to say, I have a general misunderstanding of music. I know what I like but I …
April 5, 2024
Maurizio Pollini never milked his music
Maurizio Pollini, one of the greatest pianists of our time, died on March 23, 2024. Born on January 5, 1942, in Milan, Italy, Pollini's musical talent was evident from a young age. He began studying …
March 29, 2024
Reader Music Issue short takes
Island civilizationWithin the Coronado Ferry Landing, you will find Coronado Tasting Room. Purveyors of Craft Spirits, Extra Virgin Olive Oils, Balsamic Vinegars, Spices and Gourmet Foods. Every other Wednesday evening, Michael Gonzales (aka Gonzo) and …
March 27, 2024
Making love to goats, Rachmaninoff, and Elgar
The San Diego Symphony concert on Saturday, March 16, started with a rather famous piece of music entitled Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky. You may have heard it once or twice within the …
March 22, 2024
Yo-Yo Ma, Wagner, and Tchaikovsky come to San Diego
The opening of The Jacobs Music Center at Copley Symphony Hall will not be happening this spring. The hall was initially scheduled to open in November of 2023 and then in March of 2024. Delays …
March 15, 2024
Don't Hekel Mr. Tavares
I’ve been making a concerted effort to expand my experience of classical music. In my attempts, I’ve come across some stinkers, such as the opera Der Trompeter von Säckingen by Viktor Nessler. I came across it while …
March 8, 2024
Ravel, Bates, and Respighi at San Diego Symphony
The San Diego Symphony concert on Sunday, February 25, featured two pieces of music for which I have great affinity, one for which I have great respect, and one for which I had no knowledge …
March 1, 2024
Five masterpieces you've never heard of
I recently wrote about my favorite concertos and there weren’t any surprises in my selections. There wasn’t a claim that George Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F amongst the greatest of concertos. I didn’t claim that Erich Korngold’s Violin …
February 23, 2024
Barber's Adagio deemed obscure
I have officially passed through the optimism of my youth and have entered my world-weary phase. Often, when I wake up in the morning, I am disappointed to see the same two feet swing out …
February 16, 2024
Don Giovanni at San Diego Opera – good
The San Diego Opera performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni on Sunday, February 4, was good, overall. It definitely wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great. It was good. The singing was good to pretty good. None of it …
February 9, 2024
The penitent critic
Man did I blow it–big time. On Sunday, January 28, I headed to what I thought was going to be the best concert of the new year. Rafael Payare was conducting the San Diego Symphony …
February 2, 2024
Of Mozart’s 626 compositions do we know 62 of them?
It is impossible to comprehend the number of classical music compositions that exist. Do we even know ten percent of them? Here’s a fair question. Of Mozart’s 626 compositions do we know 62 of them?We …
January 26, 2024
Five concerto favorites
Some big-time concertos, such as Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 are coming up in the next few months. I wonder, if I had to pick five “desert …
January 19, 2024
No choir in San Diego
I was speaking with a friend who is a music professor and a choir director. One of the institutions he works for would like him to build a bigger choir program which he is definitely …
January 12, 2024
Roman style decimation in San Diego
The San Diego Symphony is picking up the pieces of a torn and tattered 2023-2024 Jacobs Masterworks Series. Delays in the renovations of The Jacobs Music Center at Copley Symphony Hall have decimated what was …
January 5, 2024
The Best of San Diego 2023
2023 was an interesting year in classical music for San Diego. We saw a resurgence of the San Diego Opera. We saw delays in the renovations of The Jacobs Music Center at Copley Symphony Hall. …
December 29, 2023
Christmas finally done right in San Diego
“Noel Noel”, the San Diego Symphonies Christmas concert, was fun, festive, and full of holiday spirit. It was everything that December Nights in Balboa Park is not. “Noel Noel” had traditional Christmas songs instead of …
December 22, 2023
Ave Maria
Christmas is about so many, many things. There’s Santa Claus, Sol Invictus, the winter solstice, Frosty the Snowman, Buddy the Elf, Kevin—the Home Alone kid, Ralphie—the A Christmas Story kid, Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, and …
December 15, 2023
A mariachi opera makes sense in San Diego
The San Diego Opera is on a roll that started with last season’s production of *Tosca*. October saw continuing an exquisite concert featuring Latonia Moore and J’Nai Bridges, and now SDO has triumphed with El …
December 8, 2023